Skill Order

Champion Matchups

Introduction

Once upon a time in the magical world of summoners rift,a door appeared.
The curious season 3 who wanted to explore the mystical world stood behind it.
Season 3 stood infront of the door and knocked. *Knock knock*,but nobody answered ;(....The season 3 was sad.
Season 3 tried to do the same thing the next morning. *Knock knock* and suddenly the door slowly opened.A loud noise came out of some high grass infront of him.Curiously,season 3 approached the grass carefully.
A girl and her bear were lying flat on the ground and seemed to be horribly mutilated.
The blood that was dripping on the ground spelled one word..DEMACIAAAAAA

Well,besides the story telling I'm going to talk a little bit about garen jungle.And you might wonder:What the * is wrong with you? and something like "real"? Nonetheless,lets get this starting :D

Pros:
-Gets insanely tanky late game.
-Shreds armor with E and black cleaver(On enemy champions)
-With Q has great mobility early game for ganks and such(Also the silence helps against champions like kat and lee.
-R is a lovely finisher ^^
-Demacia!?

Cons:
-Besides silence has no real cc (Cleanse counts it as cc so why shouldn't I :L?)
-Kiteable without omen
-Is commonly known as "The guy waiting on ezreal".
-Often seen as a champion who can only be played top.

Why would you pick such a troll jungler?

It's funny. Well,that was why I tried going garen jungle,but it turned up quite decent(Meaning,I didn't have a hard time actually executing all my tasks as a jungler).
Not only could I counter jungle jax,because of my Q/E,but I could even succesfully steal his red. I also managed to give a considerable number of succesfull ganks. I was on par with the farm of my mid/ad carry and the clearing time of garen turns out to be suprisingly fast. Even though his E only hits 1/4th on minions it's still high enough to clear jungle creeps fast. Dealing plenty of damage in ganks(Not like certain junglers who only provide the cc which is also great). He's more like a shyvana:Speed+Damage(While being tanky ofcourse).

That's the reason I actually bothered to make a guide such as this one.
I'm not a native speaker so please bear with my grammatical mistakes and have a pleasant read.

Masteries

This is pretty self explanatory.Focuses on you being more tanky&Resistant to CC.
Combining it with items like mercury's/Spirit or any other tenacity item seems logical.

Runes

I'm not going to make this long so:
The armor will help you against the early game abuse on garen (Jungle creeps hit a lot Q-Q) and just go come along with you late game(You won't be noticing it late game,but they'll come in handy early.)
The MR is primarily for late game against AP since you'll be having more armor with garen.
The flat AD is just to clear faster and gank better.
I said that a bit bluntly,but it really is that simple.
Some of you might be wondering why I didn't include movement speed quint's. Speed quints are great for ganking lanes and just to be more mobile of the map. Feel free to replace the 2 armor quints if you feel the need for it.

Why does this chapter seem so empty?Well,it's because I couldn't find the runes pictures so my apology.

Summoner Spells

Explanation:Even though your Q increases your speed significantly,ghost will help you get where you want faster and gank more efficiently.I iz jungler?Just take it(No explanation needed)

Alternative to ghost,but this will help you close gaps+escape when it's off cd.(Viable,but I prefer ghost in the jungle).

Garen has no real slows/cc so this will give you a disabled and silence prey(Take it when your team lacks cc or when you just want to execute ganks like shyvana.)

Isn't long enough to be viable yet.

gaaahhhIt's not like you can't use this,but why? You can use this to set up hilarious ganks. Only kicks in late game and garen jungle with revive will make people instantaneously dodge que :D... This one still exists? No. Cleanse is a great summoner skill.

Skills & Skill Order

This will give you sustain,but will be cancelled by even a small amount of damage. It's not something to rely on while jungling since you'll be clearing your jungle camps fast enough to just have it deactivated after being 1~20 seconds active.

Catch up,silence them and run with it. Provides you with damage and speed throughout the whole game(Also comes in handy silencing katarina :D).
This ability also hits on turrets/inhib/nexus so if you want to push with it,be my guest.

This makes garen incredibly tanky and cc resistant (With mercury or spirit)
Also when upgrading the duration changes,but not the actual skill.

Spin to win. This phrase made garen famous :) And the fact that he ambushed people while saying DEMACIA. Unlike on minions this'll do a great amount of damage on champions WHILE being able to move. Combine with Q for a speedy moving merry-go-round of death ^^.

How would you feel getting a huge sword on your head? This attack should be used on low health targets since it uses the missing health. Great finisher.

Early points in E helps clearing camps and increases your damage output in team fights and ganks.
Q will also increase your damage output and lets you catch up with the enemy.
W makes you tanky. Really,really tanky :D. Upgrading it early on will just make you tanky for a bit longer so I prefer Q over W

You can switch between maxing Q and W.

Jungling

This is the path that I use on garen.
I prefer to start at red and gank mid or top (Sometimes bot) and then to move on in the jungle. Starting from wraiths and going to red (Ask top/bot to damage it,if not then you'll be popping up some early health pots). Continue to wolves and back to wraiths. Now you can decide which lane you want to gank. (Going to golems =gank bot/mid or top). Going to blue? Gank top/mid or mid/bot depending on which team you are.

If a fight occurs in a lane and you're near doing wraiths and such (With a reasonable amount of health) then assist them in the fight. Don't continue clearing the creeps @.@...

Team Fights

In team fight you're the one who can engage and shred everyone's armor using your black cleaver. Silence people coming after you're ad carry while keeping an eye on theirs. Disrupting them as much as possible will be sufficient if your team can provide the rest of the damage. Let your ad carry get Last whisper to benevit from your AOE armor shredder.
You still deal significant damage aoe,but remember you're not god...Just a demigod.

You should not let yourself be kited as garen. Try to avoid this.

Item builds&Counter jungling

Early game:

The recent s3 changes make this item on most junglers a most have. The item itself helps you increase your damage,but you will be needing EVERY single heal pot that you can get.
Red will leave you on low hp,but after you reach lvl 2 it'll be a little bit better.
You'll notice that you will regain some HP and get full health after using 2/3 health pots.
I usually go back after lvl 5/6 or after 1/2 succesfully executed ganks. If you received alot of damage while attempting a gank feel free to go back. Garen can however also countergank quite efficiently.

Mid game:

(You'll need this item every game. So get it <3)(Handy tenacity and is really similar to Randuin's omen. You can replace this for randuin's omen,but be sure to change your shoes to mercury's if you do so)(This one if you want alot of damage early&late. Still you'll suffer from some tankiness loss if you were to take this item)x(Described in late game)Or(I prefer ninja tabi's since I'll be buying spirit for the extra tenacity and it reduces bruisers/ad carries damage significantly,I just love that word ^^)

Note that you won't be having to buy all of these items. These are just items that I consider to be more viable then other items.

You're frequently ganking while still clearing your jungle. You will have your hands full with this and focusing on objectives like dragon/blue/red& getting your items build up and ready for use.

Late game:

Finishing your build with items like: (Gives armor+MR+ Demacian insurance. Just to be sure.)(If not bought mid game you can still build it here like the rest) (Helps against kiters and ad carry who rely on speed like Cait,varus,vayne) (Garen's build include more armor then MR so this item is a blessing for you and your team :>)(like the Infinity edge,you can still build it late if that's what you want)( Almost every garen gets this item,but I often get it when my team lacks alot of cc. Also the extra HP and damage+Awesome passive come in quite handy)

You are here to be the teams leader.Not mentally,but physically. You charge infront of your team,engage and spin to shred their teams armor. Silence ap casters and punish those who dare to near your ad carry. With 5k HP and a great amount of armor+MR you'll terrorize the people who consider garen bad late game. You're not a tank that will CC the team AOE like amumu or fling people till they RQ,but you make it so your team can do significantly more damage while doing a lot on your own.
The amount of tankiness and your damage dealing capability all depends on which route of items you're going to take.

You'll learn what you are while playing several games of garen. Garen jungle just adds the tasks of a jungler.

Counter jungling(You should already know how to do it)

Silence+spin and take his jungle. This guy won't do you any harm early game(Gets tanky late game) DEMACIA VS DEMACIA? Well,you can win this fight 1v1. If he uses his ulti then he's a dead man walking :D. You can counter jungle him,but bringing forget about killing him. He'll just Q and steal your movement speed to add it to his own :(. You can counter jungle him,but he'll snare+Knock you up untill his team arrives to obliterate you. Never fought him 1 on 1 inside his jungle.Still I think garen deals more damage early game then him. This guy is bothersome to most junglers,but garen doesn't care. Just silence and spin to win (He can absorb silence,but hohoho to spin.) Oh,dear god I hate olaf... You can counterjungle him at lvl 1/2,but after he lvls up certain skills he'll just slow and slam you with his true damage.Counter jungle with care. Ok. One of those champions that you see on top and not that often in jungle.You can beat him. Will just gank 24/7 after reaching lvl 3 ~.~ so yea just enter her jungle and clear everything. She's tanky. Really,really tanky :s. Besides that go ahead and counter jungle. Similar jungler as garen. Still spin would be a pain to her aswell. This can be either. Don't chase him. Yes,we can! Mhh..Trundle.. So he saps your ad which deals quite alot of damage.. And then makes himself increase in attack speed,movement speed and also get cc reduction. and Slows you by putting a huge pillar infront of you -.-..
Don't counter jungle trundle. You can try it,but he's really one of those champs you just don't want to try it against. Shaco will probably wait untill you get low hp and just strike. Ward your own jungle if you're up against this one,because it's likely that he'll be doing it :S You can beat him. You can beat him,but he'll slow you. Same as with nasus. You can beat him early and when he hasn't snowballed.You can beat him early,mid,late.Not sure about khazix. Just know he's a bother to have fed while being ad carry :>True damage is bothersome,but manageable early game. Ha.You can beat him. 2 garens jungle is one of the seven signs of the apocalypse. Two spins,2 silences,but one demacian stands above. Are you that demacian? She deals a lot of damage early game,but you're not melee like olaf/jax/nocturne so her repel won't be triggered while spinning.Silence his drain(You can't outdamage his drain) Spin to win. Just don't be kited by his knife and you'll be fine. You can counter jungle diana. This guy will be another one of those who will come on top.
Cho'gath and garen will both use their ulti's at the end to either "Garen:Max damage/ Cho'gath an extra stack" Just kill him(He's really weak :D).

Final Comments

It was actually quite fun writing this guide,but also tiring. Should've split it in 2 days instead of rushing it ^.^;.
With that said I hope you had a pleasant read and have fun on summoners rift.